"What Happened To Our Baby?" – Muntaka Asks Minister

The Majority Chief Whip Muntaka Mubarak says he will push for an independent Parliamentary Investigation into the controversial missing baby saga if the Ministry of Health is unable to determine the whereabouts of the babies.

The Asawase MP is not impressed by a compensation package being proposed by the Ministry for Suwaiba Abdul, the mother of one of the missing babies.

“What happened to our baby?” he demanded in an interview with Joy News’ Parliamentary correspondent Elton John Brobbey adding details of an investigative report on the controversial matter announced by the Minister of Health Sherry Aryittey are inconclusive, to say the least.

The Korle-Bu CEO Professor Ohene Adjei has been sacked for negligence; the doctor and the nurse on duty on the day Suwaiba’s baby got missing are on indefinate leave as part of sanctions for the hospital’s seeming negligence in handling the matter.

The bodies of three babies said to be born dead have gone missing in a scandal that has shocked the entire nation. Whilst the two mothers of the missing babies are not known, one, Suwaiba Abdul, is demanding that the hospital produces the body of her baby, even if he is dead so she could bury him according to Islamic traditions.

The babies were said to have been burnt with other waste materials in the hospital’s incinerator but that has been contested.

Some suspects including an orderly at KATH are currently being prosecuted on the matter.

The Health Ministry conducted an investigation into the matter and released a draft report.

The Minister after announcing the details of the investigative report, also proposed that the hospital’s management sit with the family of Suwaiba to agree on a proposed compensation package.

Sherry Aryittey however indicated that her office is still waiting for comprehensive report from the Midwifery Council as well as the Medical and Dental Council on the matter.

Even before the two institutions will bring their reports the Majority Chief Whip Muntaka Mubarak has stated that any report that does not talk about the whereabouts of the missing babies will not be accepted.

He said comments that the babies were also burnt in the hospital’s incinerator cannot be true because he has gathered information that the hospital’s incinerator had not been used five days after the incident happened.

“The records at KATH did not indicate that the babies were burnt,” he stated, adding “if they used any other method other than the incinerator [to burn] they have to explain when, where and who supervised the burning.”

He said Parliament is waiting for the two reports from the two institutions and if the MPs are still not satisfied, he will push for a Parliamentary inquiry into the matter.